The cliffs of Stark Mountain's face are as foreboding as the heat of its interior, and even Heatran's personal blessing could not fully assuage Jasper's fears. Without Bibarel and Machamp, he would never even have attempted such a dangerous climb – but even with an expert at climbing rocks and a pokemon more than capable of punching any falling ones out of the way, Jasper had gone a long way up a narrow peak with no flying pokemon in his party should he fall.

But flying pokemon – or at least those flying pokemon worth catching with only days left to save the world – do not nest in tall grass on the ground and wait for a trainer to pounce. If Jasper was to prove himself worthy of capturing Stark Mountain's lone Pidgeot, he would first need to challenge it at its home on the mountain's peak.

Which meant making it there. Alive.

Jasper had climbed Mount Coronet plenty of times in his life, and survived an avalanche or two, but none of Stark Mountain's gaps and narrow ledges seemed as easy to cope with as the ones at home. His climb did let him grab more than a few nuggets and technical machines – and although they weren't personally useful, Jasper had a debt to repay.

The pokemon who lived on the mountain had mostly avoided him, and Jasper wasn't sure why. Perhaps Heatran had ordered them to stand down, perhaps humans were so rare here that the local pokemon had never developed a fear of Man in the first place. As Ruin Maniac Jasper climbed higher, he did sight an increasing number of Pidgey and Pidgeotto, whose presence informed him that, despite the often labyrinthine and sprawling path, he was in fact getting closer to the summit.

A more experienced trainer in this situation would likely have used an ultra ball on one of the flock so it could carry him to the peak, but Jasper's vision was so focused on the one flying pokemon capable of carrying him to Kalos that it simply never occurred to him to catch the others as tools to get him there. In the end, however, he wouldn't need to; if anything, it seemed like the birds were going out of their way not to disturb his climb, and he and his pokemon were ultimately capable of handling the mountain's danger.

It was at a relatively wide plateau, barely within sight of the peak and its nest (and only because it was the highest thing around on a clear day) where he spotted the bird with long, sleek wings and many-colored feathers placed like hair – and at the speed it was moving, he couldn't make out much more.

"Bibarel, start things off with a waterfall!" Jasper shouted, noting Machamp's type disadvantage and calling back his adventuring companion as he issued his challenge. But no sooner had he announced his attack than had the Pidgeot bent its wings and smashed headfirst into the beaver pokemon, and the shaken Bibarel's attempt to ride a waterfall to its foe was so outmatched it found the distance between the two pokemon slowly increase as it attempted its counterattack.

"Damn. Stop that before you fall, and... try a surf, I guess!"

Bibarel complied with Jasper's new order and summoned as much water as he could find, although the heat so near the volcano evaporated half his attack before it arrived. Pidgeot easily flew around what was left of the wave, then flapped its wings and brought forth winds that could easily have knocked Jasper and Bibarel off the mountain entirely and saw them plummet to their graves, had the Pidgeot in question not aimed the hurricane at the rocks behind them. While the collision was painful, at least Jasper was able to get up and brush himself off.

Bibarel, however, was out cold, and it was almost a relief, because the way the battle was going keeping him in the fight would only have increased the severity of his injuries when inevitably knocked out. Jasper was down to Machamp, and the Pidgeot that Heatran had led him to was still without a scratch, its feathers as dry as when the battle with a water pokemon began.

And worse, even if Machamp did somehow weaken it enough, Jasper would also have to somehow actually hit the Pidgeot with an ultra ball. He had already taken the ball out and held it in his right hand, but even a professional athlete would need a lot of luck to hit anything moving that fast.

"Time to overcome your weaknesses, Machamp! When it gets close enough, hit it with a Dynamicpunch, I guess," Jasper said, his tone betraying his lack of confidence;

Had Jasper been using virtually any other species of pokemon, the sight of an approaching Pidgeot – let alone one using a super-effective move – would be enough to cause his fighter to defy that order and brace for impact.

But Machamp have long viewed taking hits as a matter of pride at worst, and at best the price to pay to hit back. The equally brave bird diving its way connected with a near-knockout blow, but paid the price not only in recoil damage, but in four powerful, simultaneous punches to its midsection, and seemed nearly as injured as the Machamp. Something in the collision seemed to have horribly disoriented it, as well; it now began flapping its wings aimlessly and flying around in a series of loops and zigzags that seemed to lack all rhyme or reason, and the next thing it collided with was the side of the mountain's peak.

And when the Pidgeot hit that peak, for a few precious seconds, a moving target became a stationary one. With an underhand motion, Jasper flung the Ultra Ball high into the air, and the ball connected with the pokemon's wing and absorbed it in a red light before it fell back onto the mountainside, shook three times, and stopped, sealing the Pidgeot inside.

It is said that a trainer wins their pokemon's loyalty the moment it is captured, but this is not entirely the truth. The moments after capture are critical for any pokemon-trainer bond, for a trainer must prove to their new pokemon that they are not only a strong master – which the battle and capture itself demonstrates – but one who is kind and just to their underlings and worthy of obedience.

Jasper had sent out Pidgeot soon after catching it, and with an unconscious Bibarel and a badly injured Machamp, had asked it to fly him to the Pokemon Center. But Pidgeot had balked at this offer, demonstrating with a series of loud chirps and gestures to its nest and the sky its need to say goodbye to its flock. And Jasper, after explaining the situation with Jirachi to his newest ally, agreed to let the Pidgeot prepare the Pidgeotto and Pidgey of Stark Mountain for a life without their leader, who would soon be halfway around the world.

One of the Pidgeotto – probably the strongest of the group, although Jasper was no bird-watcher and it was hard to tell based on size along – seemed to regard Pidgeot's departure with far more fear and trepidation than the others, but after some reassuring cries of "Pidge" and "geot" from his former leader, ascended to the nest-throne atop Stark Mountain, and pointed with its wings to the heavens as it screamed "Pidgeotto" ad nauseam and swore to the other Pidgey and Pidgeotto of the mountain to evolve as soon as possible and do everything it could to protect them.

But the Pidgey and Pidgeotto seemed only half-convinced, and watched with fear as a Gyarados appeared far further inland than any had seen in living memory. Only the words of Jasper, relayed by Pidgeot, that the Gyarados and its trainer were friends managed to calm the flock down.

"I knew you'd need a flying type after I saved you from almost drowning, but I didn't think you'd manage to catch the strongest wild bird on the entire island!" Andrea said, waving hello from her Gyarados and shouting to get Jasper's attention. "Those rare candies must have really helped you!"

"Thanks a ton!" he answered, directing Pidgeot over and emptying his pockets; he didn't recognize half the techniques written on the four technical machines he had picked up, but the disk shape made their identity clear and perhaps she could make use of them, or find someone who could. The nuggets were more obviously valuable, as they had been in every era.

Fisherwoman Andrea sorted through her new items, treating the first three with mild disregard, but her eyes lit up and she smiled at the fourth. "Dragon tail? This will really help my Gyarados – thank you so much!"

"Consider my debt repaid," Jasper said, but Andrea shook her head.

"Not quite. You haven't accomplished the second part yet," she answered, "though I take it from which flying pokemon you caught that you'll be on your way to Kalos soon. Here, take some earmuffs if you want to hear anything once you land. Gyarados won't go nearly as fast as Pidgeot, but you never know after a couple Dragon Dances, and it gets cold here in winter. Don't worry, I have extra." She added.

"You've helped me enough already... want a ride?" Jasper asked, putting the earmuffs on. "From what I hear it's like an impromptu world championship. Seems like there's another airplane full of elite trainers landing in Kiloude City every few minutes."

"A world championship..." Andrea answered with a sad and distant sigh. "It would be nice, but if they held a real world championship there's no way I'd qualify. These days I think I was lucky to get invited to the Fight Area to begin with – I don't know how I won the Sinnoh league two years ago. I'm just not good enough to do anything about Jirachi... and maybe with the Tower Tycoon and the rest of the top class gone I can use this time to put together a winning streak!"

Jasper smiled, wished her luck, and gripped tightly onto his new Pidgeot as it raced halfway around the world at twice the speed of sound. It seemed energetic enough after the battle, he didn't have time to waste, and Kalos had pokemon centers of its own.

The wave came with such ferocity that the people of Kalos were riven with speculation as to which water pokemon had caused the tsunami. Some suggested Kyogre had left Hoenn for Kalos, for it was the only pokemon big enough to produce such a tsunami; others, noting the lack of rain, suggested Suicune. A few proposed more outlandish possibilities, such as Manaphy (for the same reasons as Suicune, plus that it was found further out to sea), Tornadus (because the winds, while not hurricane force, always preceded the wave), Keldeo (in revenge for water pollution) or even Splash Plate Arceus (because only the creator, the god of gods, had the power to wreak such devastation.)

Only one individual – a despondent, yet somewhat relieved Tower Tycoon, on his way home after learning there were still pokemon capable of defeating him, and that Jirachi was among them – recognized the wave for what it was. Amidst the fog and storm he sighted a glimpse in the distance what looked like the faint outline of Sinnoh's northern coastline and the outline of Mount Coronet, and although he had never taken them seriously until now, he had never forgotten his homeland's old legends.

The culprit was not a water pokemon, but a grass and ground one who had grown so big that her movements devastated those around her no matter how much she sought to avoid tragedy. And she had sought that; her swim around the world had taken place well out of sight of inhabited land until she approached her destination.

Sinnoh was awake, and she had come to issue Jirachi a challenge. And after a hundred successive victories against the most storied trainers from Hoenn to Kalos, Jirachi was willing to battle!

The High Priestess of Arceus had never been faced with a disaster of this magnitude, and did not know what sacrilege she must have personally wrought or tolerated among her people to bring such a terrible wrath upon Sinnoh.

When the first meteors struck, she had taken refuge in Mount Coronet – not to run away, but to comb the shrine of Arceus for a legendary tome still whispered by some of the priests, but which she and the better part of the clergy had long dismissed as a myth. And despite the many murals found in the mountain that seemed to point to it, and the many historical records describing similar devices in the hands of Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, the fabled Codex of Arceus, if it had ever existed, was nowhere to be found.

And neither was any refuge or salvation, despite her desperate efforts to protect the public. The land itself was moving faster than ever, and no longer at the leisurely and gentle if confusing pace at which Sinnoh had traveled through the sea. And although her command of Kalos' language wasn't the best, the aerial photographs of Sinnoh now showing up on now-local television were unmistakable; their little island was in fact a Torterra, and this Torterra had woken up and chosen to challenge Jirachi.

And the eight million people living on its back and the civilization they had built there – a civilization so pious that foreign pilgrims came from around the world and marveled at the land's devotion to the gods – now faced doom not from a god of destruction, but from the long-awaited wish god that Sinnoh the Torterra had chosen to challenge.

The great forests which separated Sinnoh's settlements from one another had risen as one into a massive hammer and swatted a tiny god. But the power contained in that metal body was made clear as the whole region felt recoil in the form of a devastating earthquake. And the High Priestess' theocratic government, already overtaxed providing for those unlucky enough to live near the legs and the many whose families had been at sea when Sinnoh left, was too overwhelmed to answer this disaster.

Then came the light – a powerful column of blue that seemed almost like lightning, but the survivors of Jubilife described it as feeling far more like having a metal box land on them. The High Priestess couldn't tell how many had survived, but it wasn't enough; her capital, and with it the largest settlement in Sinnoh and the one most able to coordinate any sort of rescue operation, now lay in ruins.

Any battle with this Torterra would be sure to devastate populated areas, which is why it was so stupid and dangerous what Sinnoh was doing. And why she should've ordered an evacuation the moment they spotted land – why on earth did she expect the gods would protect them? But she did not think Torterra solely to blame, and the High Priestess couldn't shake the thought that Jirachi had not targeted Jubilife because it represented a vulnerable part of the Torterra's back, but because of the humans living there.

And for all the people she had lost or feared for, there were so many left in Sinnoh who were alive, and she was not going to lock herself in a cave like Arceus and the others to let them die.

Her broadcast would be made by radio, largely because it had survived the battle far better than the internet, although in this advanced era few still had one to let them listen. She hoped those who did would spread the word, and as for the others, that's what the State Chatot were for.

The High Priestess' words flowed slowly and tearfully; this was an unrehearsed speech, and the friends and family she had surely lost (and there were certainly many, given what happened to Jubilife, although her nonstop duties to the temple-government of Sinnoh in this crisis left her with no time to identify them or track them down) wore heavily on her emotions. As did similar casualties on the emotions of everyone else in the land.

"The gods have abandoned us. This holy country rests on the back of an enormous Torterra, who has chosen to engage in an apocalyptic battle with Jirachi. I do not know what wish it seeks granted, but so long as it fights, every single one of us is endangered by the wrath of the only god around Sinnoh who cares if we live or die."

Her speech was choked with tears, but they were clear enough and undeniably sacrilege; she had personally executed heretics for less. But if she felt anything about this fact, it was not hypocrisy, but remorse; Palkia had appeared only to disclaim responsibility and deny prayers, and the others, even Arceus, had done nothing to stem Jirachi's wrath. Certainly, these pokemon existed – no high priestess could deny that – but if today had proven anything, it was that those she had spent a lifetime serving were unworthy to be called gods.

"Jirachi's attack has left our government in shambles, and I can not provide nearly the emergency assistance all of you so desperately need. But I can assure you that the danger is serious. If you have planes, boats, or pokemon, I urge you to evacuate this island, seek refuge elsewhere, and bring with you any others who lack your good fortune; if not, find the sturdiest place to take shelter you can, and await rescue from any left alive who are able."

Most of the population had already begun those actions; it didn't take a king, priest, or president to tell them they were in danger when the media had already reported the earthquake and Jubilife being blown up. But the High Priestess remained the nominal ruler of what was left of Sinnoh's government, and anything she could do to get the word out (or encourage others to help their fellow man and not just flee in desperation) was worth it.

"If we want to survive this battle, it's up to people and mortal pokemon to create our own miracle."

As she spoke those sorrowful, sacrilegious, and desperate words, a boy who had long been a skeptic carrying a document that claimed Arceus as its writer flew towards Kalos and Sinnoh, hoping he could somehow miraculously save the world.

Jasper had never seen the Battle Maison before – neither the real one nor the Hoenn replica, and unlike Prism Tower or some of Kalos' other skyscrapers, it was simply too short to spot from the air, hidden among Kalos' vast forests.

But although Jasper had a week ago only explored a small portion of Sinnoh, and under ordinary circumstances would have wasted precious time horribly lost, his Pidgeot had long migrated with its flock around the world in search of places with both sufficient food and challenging trainers. This was not the first time Pidgeot had flown to Kiloude, just the first time it had done so while carrying a rider.

A groggy Jasper – half knocked out from the sonic boom of Pidgeot's flight, half simply finally succumbing to sleep deprivation - was awoken by his Pidgeot's soft landing at the Kiloude City pokemon center, not far from the Maison, and found it familiarly quiet. A few elite trainers milled about the center, but the bustle he had expected from a worldwide pokemon challenge seemed strangely absent.

"Where is everyone?" he muttered to no one in particular, handing his pokemon to the local Nurse Joy, whose healing machine quickly erased his three injured comrades' wounds.

"Jirachi left the Maison to go apocalypse on the island that just showed up off the coast, and the island seems to be fighting back like it's a pokemon. If you ask me it's stupidly dangerous, but it's still one hell of a fight and almost everyone went to the beaches to check it out," another trainer who had overheard him chimed in with a Hoenn accent, and Jasper ran out of the center, mounted his Pidgeot again and flew in the direction of the coastline.

What Jasper saw was far too familiar. Jasper had never seen this particular picture from the air, but he recognized it from too many maps and postcards. He was right to flee when he saw the spike on which Mount Coronet rested, which seemed to shine clearer than ever, the mountain itself having slid around during the battle.

He was home, but home wasn't where it belonged anymore. And worse, home – the giant Torterra where he had lived his entire life except for these past few days - was fighting Jirachi, and win or lose, this battle could only end in disaster for the people of Sinnoh.

He couldn't speak to pokemon. He couldn't know that Sinnoh's wish, if granted, would reset history to 65 million years ago (and that would be before Jirachi twisted it) and that the species of pokemon alive today would be changed beyond recognition, or that the world Sinnoh would create by undoing her wish need not contain a place for humans. But he could see the earth shake and the cities bombarded from the air, and he knew that Jirachi was dangerous and he would have to somehow end this fight.

"Machamp, Dynamicpunch Jirachi! Bibarel, Surf Torterra! Pidgeot, Whirlwind, also on Torterra!"

Jasper's Machamp and Bibarel were summoned to his Pidgeot's wings, and Machamp succeeded in connecting with the wishing star, but only seemed to hurt its four fists, while Bibarel spat a large wave that broke harmlessly against Sinnoh's much larger shores. Jirachi and Torterra continued to clash, seemingly oblivious to his efforts, while Jasper took the opportunity to rethink his strategy as his Pidgeot was engulfed in light and emerged with blue wingtips and even bigger hair; again it flapped its wings furiously. After a Mega Evolution, Torterra's movement seemed, if not stopped, at least a bit slowed, and a lot of trees shook in the fierce breeze – although the enormous pokemon was nowhere near blown away.

If he was to stand even a fool's chance, he'd have to try something new, and all he had left were combinations.

"Bibarel, help Pidgeot out with strength! Push Torterra away from the battlefield!" The beaver leaped from its avian mount into the water, falling with the whirlwind in the hopes of boosting the momentum of its initial shove, then continuing to paddle as it pushed at the island it once called home. But a Bibarel is smaller than an ordinary Torterra, and far smaller than a Torterra that had spent an eon growing so large that it now sustained the majority of the world's Bidoof population.

It would have come to nothing, but many others had heard Jasper's cry, or spread the word of a Bibarel struggling in vain at pushing Torterra back, and virtually the entire remaining population of Sinnoh one by one set out on boats and water pokemon and began to join him – and their pushes were enough.

Yet where Torterra was little by little forced to flee, Jirachi followed, again rising on the strange meteor that functioned more like a spaceship, continuing an aerial bombardment further out of sight of land – and even as Jasper read aloud from the Codex of Arceus about the danger this pokemon posed, a few stray ultra balls were hurled Jirachi's way, and a few powerful and desperate pokemon trainers rode a diverse flock of flying pokemon high into the sky. These trainers ignored Jasper's warnings in the hope that their wish wouldn't lead to disaster, or that the disaster would be worth it.

Even if he somehow managed to drive it away from Sinnoh, even if whoever captured it was pure of heart and clever of tongue, Jirachi was, in the words of his codex, "a disaster which can not be prepared for or mitigated, only averted by luck."

Jasper's current team was of a sort that took luck out of the equation; neither Machamp nor Pidgeot's attacks ever missed, and Bibarel, down in the water, would be no help against Jirachi, and this fact alone let him doubt his hope of victory. But even if every attack connected, there was an element of luck in every pokemon battle, if only through the trainer. And besides, unless the gods had a far greater influence on human events than he had ever imagined (and he was barely willing at this point to accept their existence) he was lucky to have found the codex in the first place, lucky to make his way to the Fight Area safe and sound, and lucky such powerful pokemon had joined him.

Jirachi's rising back into the air on its meteor and the thought that his pokemon never miss (despite his foe's tiny size, and the rock not being much bigger) had given Jasper an idea - and maybe he'd be lucky enough for this combination attack to work. "Machamp, Seismic Toss! Pidgeot, Whirlwind!"

Machamp jumped from Pidgeot and grabbed hold of the swiftly moving meteor, Jirachi and all, with the strength, courage, and reckless disregard for their own safety that have given Machamp their reputation as legendary fighters – although Pidgeot flew quickly over to give the fighting pokemon a landing pad, protecting it from any real danger.

It hurled Jirachi high into the air, and it soared past Rayquaza into the stratosphere, struck by an attack more famed for its ability to nearly lift pokemon into orbit than its ability to wound them, for a Diglett and a Snorlax fall at the same speed and gravity's acceleration maxes out well before Seismic Toss finishes regardless of height.

But with Pidgeot flapping its wings at twice the speed of sound and following Jirachi higher and higher into the air, and Jasper hanging on for dear life grateful for the warmth of his earmuffs because the rest of him was freezing, and recalling his Machamp so it wouldn't have to do likewise, gravity wasn't part of the equation; the wind's boost to Machamp's muscle was enough for Jirachi and its meteor to reach escape velocity and fly harmlessly back into space.

And the lore preserved in the so-called Codex of Arceus had let Jasper save the world from another disaster – a disaster called a wish.

When Jasper landed in Sinnoh, he would be hailed as a hero, but a few would continue to snipe at him, for they never believed the book's prophecies, sought Jirachi's wish for their own use, or considered him as a petty temple thief who had stolen knowledge from a clergy far more equipped to use it.

Jasper would not respond openly to their critiques, but either from the fame or the exhilaration of his journey, he had returned to Sinnoh a changed man. For the rest of his days, he would be far more interested in documenting and preserving ruins than robbing them, and the book had given him over seven hundred places to start.

He would never meet Arceus in person, nor would he be able to confirm the authenticity of the book's authorship. But a legend would spring up not long after his victory that the boy from Mount Coronet (which was, after all, the center of the god's shrine) was an incarnation of Arceus himself, that the priests had not bothered him through his thefts because they knew this truth even if the incarnation had forgotten it, because it was all his property to begin with. And it had not been a whirlwind from Mega Pidgeot, too high for anyone else to see, but divine Judgment that had driven Jirachi from the world.

To this, he would only reiterate a quote from page 493 of his Codex, the entry about Arceus which claimed its divine authorship; "I do not wish to settle the age-old arguments of Man, although I know the answers, for I believe their disputes can be far more interesting than the truth."